5 Superstars On SmackDown That Would Be A Better WWE Champion Than Jinder Mahal

11 months ago

Jinder Mahal’s run as WWE Champion has been a disaster so far. His promos have been for the most part boring, now they have become lazy and controversial. The feud between Jinder Mahal and Shinsuke Nakamura has simply been Mahal poking fun at Nakamura because he is Japanese. WWE’s Hell in a Cell PPV is less than two weeks away and the WWE Championship match feels like the third most important match on the card. Here are 5 Superstars on SmackDown’s roster that would make a better WWE Champion:

Shinsuke Nakamura

Let’s start with the most obvious Superstar and hopefully the Superstar that will be taking the WWE Championship away from Jinder Mahal on October 8th, Shinsuke Nakamura. Shinsuke might not be great at cutting promos, but he is infinitely better than Mahal in the ring. Nakamura can feud with anyone on SmackDown’s roster and make them a better performer in the ring. Well, except Jinder Mahal.

Rusev

WWE wanted to get the crowd to hate Mahal because he was foreign and scolded the American fans. Rusev already did that when he was United States Champion and did a much better job than Jinder Mahal is doing right now. Rusev is currently feuding with Randy Orton. He lost a match in 15 seconds to Orton at SummerSlam and then won a match against Orton in 15 seconds on SmackDown.

Their feud is going nowhere and will most likely end at Hell in a Cell on October 8th. If Nakamura doesn’t win the WWE Championship at the PPV, why not give Rusev a run with the title? He is better in the ring and on the microphone than Jinder Mahal.

AJ Styles

AJ Styles had an awesome run with the WWE Championship last year. He is currently the United States Champion and is defending the title against Baron Corbin at WWE’s Hell in a Cell. Styles hasn’t really done anything as United States Champion that has been memorable. He stated that he was going to bring back the United States Open Challenge every week but that hasn’t come to fruition. SmackDown was at it’s best when AJ Styles was WWE Champion. He elevated the Superstars that were in the ring with him and I wouldn’t mind seeing AJ get another run with the title as soon as possible.

Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn has never won a title on the main roster and Jinder Mahal is your current WWE Champion. There will always be people that say that Zayn cannot cut a promo, but if you watched SmackDown on Tuesday night you would know that he is very capable of doing so. He’s not the biggest Superstar on the roster, but he is certainly is one of the best in the ring that WWE has to offer.

Zayn has been stuck in the role as the underdog since joining the main roster. I don’t have an issue with him in that role, but when is the payoff coming? Is Zayn ever going to break through or he is forever going to be stuck in the mid card? I thought switching from RAW to SmackDown during WWE’s Superstar Shake-Up would revitalize his WWE career. It hasn’t yet, but a run with the WWE Championship sure would. It would be no more ridiculous than Jinder Mahal winning the WWE Championship.

Kevin Owens

We have seen Kevin Owens as the Universal Champion and it was a mixed bag. It was exciting when Triple H hit the Pedigree on Seth Rollins to gift him the title, but the rest of his reign left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t Kevin Owens’ fault. It was the way that he was booked. Owens is a character that only cares about himself and will do whatever it takes to win and provide for his family.

The version of Kevin Owens we saw as Universal Champion relied way too much on outside help, mainly from Chris Jericho. Owens and Jericho had some entertaining moments, but it made Owens look like a weak Universal Champion. That turned out to be the case as he was distracted by Jericho after turning on him during the Festival of Friendship. Jericho’s entrance music hit and Owens lost his mind and promptly lost to Goldberg in 10 seconds at WWE Fastlane.

We are seeing the best version of Kevin Owens on SmackDown. He beat the hell out of Vince McMahon because he knew he could. He avoided Shane McMahon on this past week’s episode of SmackDown and escaped through the crowd. This version of Kevin Owens is ruthless. He will still take the easy way out and has no problem stealing victories with cheap shots. However, he is not relying on anyone else to help him out. It is Kevin Owens against the world and he would make for an awesome heel WWE Champion right now.